Website Development

Transforming web design into web function.

Design vs Development

The terms: “website design” and “web development” are often used interchangeably, but there are significant differences between the two. NetGain’s graphic artists design the overall look of your website. However, it is our developers that bring these designs to life. Our development department consists of programmers and coders that take static design files and create fully-functioning, dynamic websites. Whether you need a simple landing page or a complex e-commerce site, NetGain has the depth of experience and the technical expertise to handle the most challenging online project.

At NetGain, we have two types of web developers: front-end (or client-side) developers and back-end (or server-side) developers. While there is some overlap, they have very different roles in building a website. They carry different tool kits and even speak different languages (programming languages).

Front-End Development

Website construction begins with front-end development. Also referred to as client-side development, this encompasses the visuals that a user first sees. Our front-end coders use a handful of programming languages when building web pages and applications: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and JavaScript. HTML provides the scaffolding, or structure of the page. Common examples of HTML markup would be paragraph formatting, headings, and image placement. Meanwhile, CSS helps define the overall visual style of a web page. This includes background colour, borders, margins, and fonts. We ensure that CSS styling is adaptable across all handheld devices. Finally, JavaScript is layered on top, providing interactive, dynamic content. JavaScript is used in functional web elements like embedding social media feeds, customized image galleries, or interactive maps

Once your website has been launched, you can easily make modifications on your own. Fortunately, you don’t need to understand computer code to keep your web presence up-to-date. Our sites are built on the WordPress platform. WordPress is an open-source Content Management System that powers 29% of the world wide web. It is easy to use – even for non-technical people. Design changes are simple, and it is easy to add content (including text, images, videos, links, and pages) to your site. Our development team provides free WordPress training to your staff, so you can be comfortable in making day-to-day changes to your site. It has never been easier to update and maintain your website.

Back-End Development

For more complex projects, like web applications or e-commerce stores, the next construction phase involves back-end development. Back-end development governs behind-the-scenes workings of a web application. Our programmers focus on how a web app functions and how visitors interact with it to accomplish a task. NetGain’s developers use programming scripts like PHP to interface with information contained on a database. We use these server-side scripts to manage data before displaying results to the user on the front-end. This is useful for handling large datasets that would be found on, say, an inventory management system or booking/reservation system. Another example would be managing custom wholesaler pricing on a dealer portal of an e-commerce site. Incorporating this type of functionality depends on skilled programmers with experience in server-side web development.

NetGain’s back-end development team also uses Application Programming Interfaces (API) to create hand-crafted solutions that meet specific online needs. API’s communicate between different software platforms. They allow our developers to connect diverse programs that would otherwise be impossible to integrate. Whenever you check the weather on your mobile phone or update your Facebook status, you are using an API. The application sends an inquiry to the server which retrieves the data and sends it back to your phone in a way that you can read it. Our technical team is extremely well experienced with integrating API’s and we look forward to helping you develop your next killer app.

Experienced Developers

Your business needs the best web developer in Barrie. With over a decade of programming experience, count on NetGain to deliver seamless results for your challenging web project. Call us today to discover how our talented website development team can bring your digital dreams to life.